Mon 8/26 - PM 75 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden

Lincoln woods. Interesting run, started out with right calf feeling like hell. Seems a bit late for DOMS from race three days ago but who knows. Decided previously to visit the Farrar pond trail, soldiered on regardless. Under a bit of time pressure thanks to dentist appointment and this was sufficient to make the pace start to pick up after crossing back over 117 into Mt. Misery. From there the pace picked up in earnest and I was actually hammering at times leading up to the pond. More of same followed on the way in from the pond back to the parking lot, the windup being a relative breeze with the calf having long since loosened up. Right hammie didn't feel that bad either, although of course some tightness regardless. Overcast rolled in overnight and along with it the stickies are back as well.

Sun 8/25 - AM 75 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden

Lincoln woods. I had planned on doing a longer run what with it being Sunday morning and all but got started far too late for that to be possible. Instead ended up doing what amounted to a typical run, quite typical in fact for this summer, only earlier in the day. Slept enough that I was feeling better than most recent days. Some stiffness in right calf left over from the race the other day, classic DOMS. Short pickups again on the way in, a bit more turnover than earlier in the week. Very nice day with sunny skies and dry conditions.

Sat 8/24 - PM 70 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden

Concord woods. Another lap around the sun completed, I celebrated with a mellow putter in the woods. Hapgood forest/Brister's Hill to start, quite slowly. Pace gradually picked up from there before getting in the water. Bit of a cool tinge as the sun was setting after a dry and sunny day, like Colorado without the piercingly strong sun. Hamstring and glute predictably stiff and sore after yesterday, I was hoping maybe for some progress there. Talk about wishful thinking, I don't think the issue's going anywhere anytime soon.

Fri 8/23 - PM 60 minutes incl. 5 mile road race

This seemed like a good idea when I signed up for it a while back. Had it not been on the docket I might have taken the rest of the week off from running. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing. From an athletic tourism perspective it was an interesting area to race although getting to this neck of the woods is more of a pain than I'd like. Did a relatively thorough warmup, no idea what pace would be appropriate or sustainable. Tried to be somewhat conservative early on, thought I'd picked a pace that was doable but found out otherwise soon enough. First slightly downhill mile went in 5:20, next flat mile in 5:40, then 5:44 slightly up at which point I was starting to feel the effort weighing me down. Thought I was in no-man's land by the halfway point but slowed right down into getting passed by two more people as the fourth mile went in 5:55. The only hill of any consequence (debatable really) was in the last mile and I realized coming off of it that I could get one of the lost places back. Thus motivated I finished with a stirring and given the context of the race fairly embarrassing sprint to the line which brought the final mile in just under 5:50. Without the sprint that last mile would have been a lot closer to six minutes. Disturbing how substantially I slowed in the second half of the race and even more so, the fact that the effort felt just as taxing as it did early on. I'm wondering whether I might be deficient in something other than sleep, hopefully not. Right hammie hung in okay during the race but started to stiffen afterward right on schedule. Cooldown was brief as I had to hit the road. Still somewhat sticky but humidity not as high as earlier in the week.

Thu 8/22 - 70 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden

Lincoln woods with drills on Pine Hill. Perhaps a longer break would be in order but it was getting quite tiresome and I wanted more to get out on the trails again. As seems to be the case whenever I take more than a couple of days off in a row, felt some soreness in the core/hip flexor area but nothing too extreme. Right hammie feels somewhat better after the assiduous stretching and core work done during the layoff. Underlying issue still there though of course. Started out very relaxed, with the pace picking up a bit later on. Short pickups on the way in which felt feeble at best, unable to generate much in the way of speed. Sticky conditions continued from earlier in the week, which made the pond a welcome respite. The water was cooler than I remembered it which came as something of a surprise, although I suppose the milder temps and cool nights had a role in that.

Sun-Wed 8/18-21 - off

A long time coming. Too long of course but what can you do. After the dud race up the mountain and with the usual sore stiffness in the hammie motivation was at an all time low. Toyed with the idea of getting to the pond but it didn't happen, the only exercise in fact was a mostly spur of the moment 30 minute ride to Great Meadows. Sleeping away a good chunk of the afternoon in lieu of doing anything worthwhile. Doubt I made much of a dent in the underlying fatigue, but the vacation which was supposed to let me catch up on sleep was sorely lacking in that department.

Sat 8/17 - AM 3 hours, Barr Trail

Third time most definitely not the charm on the mountain. Kind of suspected a turd was in the offing, but not to the extent of being 18 minutes slower than last year. I had even hoped that not overdoing it with the 6+ hour jaunts in the mountains like I did last year three days before the race would help me this time around. Not so much. While the right leg issues are compromising my ability to run at anything faster than a jog and it was certainly sore afterward, I have to think much of this dud comes down to not sleeping enough all summer. Completely strung out from an endless string of nights not getting to bed before 11. I had hoped the vacation would allow me the opportunity to get decent rest for a couple of weeks, of course it didn't happen. Went to bed at least as late and unable to sleep in to any decent degree. Combined with less napping I may have even ended up more fried coming out of the vacation than going in. Wasting colossal amounts of time on the internet, with only myself to blame. On top of all that sob story the series of mediocre at best race results has made it clear that I'm worn to the nub and some kind of break is in order. As for the race itself, I knew something was rotten in Denmark when I hit the 11 miles to go sign in a time six fucking minutes slower than last year. By 7 to go I was hitting numbers a mile behind where I was a year ago, which made me wonder if maybe I was counting them off wrong in my hypoxically compromised mind. However, when I got to 5 miles to go in just under 87 minutes, even with the altitude I could do the math and recognized that the time was going to be awful. With that a degree of who cares set in combined with get it over with. While I made half-hearted attempts to keep up with runners I raced and lost to last year (namely Dobson and Romero, who also ran much slower than last year oddly enough) but no real hope of actually doing anything. Did a lot more walking the last two miles this year than last year, certainly feeling the exertion but also not really caring at that point. Despite the terrible performance, the generous prize structure affords me the opportunity to run again next year on the race's dime which I certainly hope to do. As referenced above, there were others near me in the final standings who also ran significantly slower than a year ago. In fact, my time from last year would have placed fifth in this year's edition. Not sure what explains how mediocre the race was, people were complaining about the heat but the weather seemed mostly the same as the past two years.

Splits below, for shits and grins last year's number from each "miles to go" marker are in parenthesis:

20:51 (15:00) +5:51
33:08 (25:20) +1:57
44:25 (37:10) -:32 no idea how this happened
55:34 (48:00) +:19
64:51 (56:33) +:44
74:46 (64:54) +1:34 a mile behind, yippee
86:52 (75:45) +1:14
1:41:15 (89:00) +1:08
1:56:43 (1:46:18) -1:50
2:13:46 (2:01:28) +1:53
2:30:19 (2:14:57) +3:04 packing it in at this point
2:50:26 (2:32:31) +2:32

Some haze at the summit, not nearly as much as last year though. Fires in Idaho the likely cause:

In the parking lot of the high school were a few cars that had been totaled by the flood: